Not much a reaction in the theater. There also weren't many people in there (it was a Sunday night showing) See, this is why I will regret not seeing this opening night, with a packed crowd, the ambience + plus new Indy movie, would have been totally awesome.

Both times I saw it the crowd was totally with the movie UNTIL the quicksand scene. Then you could feel it slowly slipping away, more and more, the movie totally lost them around the waterfalls and never got them back.

i actually had some people go "ohhhh!!" when marion said mutt was indy's kid. i guess it was kinda a twist. once the aliens came i was taken out of it on first viewing. but the wedding pulled me back in.

At my theater half-way through the film, the viewers began booing and throwing their popcorn and soda all over the screen. Then they began slashing and ripping it with their knives. They were out of control! Next they all ran upstairs and pulled out the poor kid running the film and proceded to beat him. Then they went after his family...

Well, actually the full audience I saw it with was pretty quiet. Many of the scenes meant to be funny got no response at all. Now my wife and I did enjoy the movie, but definitely not the same reaction as watching it with LC viewers back in the summer of '89.

Australians like it has been noted with the Brits, are not really a lively audience. However there are exceptions: Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Wild Hogs, Dodgeball, Revenge of the Sith..... and believe it or not, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Dark Knight even more so, but didn't personally go to see it and am still not interested as I totally despise Batman Begins in the first place).

I went to see KOTCS twice. I won a competition to be in the audience of the public premiere of the film and that cinema was packed with a couple of hundred comp winners (it was a radio comp) and there was only one kid with a fedora, so I doubt that every single one of these people were fans, they just wanted free tickets. In any case, they did seem to enjoy the film, they laughed at all the appropriate moments, even harder than I did. I did feel personally lost when the Tarzan moment came up. I had heard about it over the net, but it still didn't prepare me for that moment and it certainly didn't prepare me for the waterfalls, which blew it for me. When the end credits started to roll people immediately walked out. There was silence. It seemed that the audience wasn't that happy with the end of the Jungle Chase onwards as well.

The second time was very similar except not as many people and more younger audience (I took my little brother, about 11 at the time) and enjoyed it more. My brother seems to enjoy the film and every kid I've met under the age of 14 seems to have enjoyed and even loved KOTCS. They did take their time to walk out in that session.

Didn't get much of anything. Mild laughs when appropriate...usually. No applause. Just typical really. Nothing to write home about. I sometimes like to listen to the crowd as they come out. From what I heard, it was very mixed. Some complaints about aliens. Others enjoyed.

I was with a horrible crowd opening night. They didn't find anything funny or worthy of a reaction, other than the blow dart and ants.

And of the three times I went, I was surprised to see how ho-hum everyone apparantly was about Marion's return. She was meant to be a major treat for the fans, and even if you feel that she was under-used, you couldn't have possibly thought that when she first showed up.

Well I'm into Aliens and such so it didn't bother me. I thought it was kinda cool.

The Nuke was totally unexpected.

I hated it at first but even before he jumped in a fridge I was thinking

"How the hell is he going to get outta this one?!"

I love the whole sequence now.

The only stuff I still can't get my head around is the rubber tree/waterfalls and the vineswinging.

Judging by the applause most people were happy at my theater.

yeah now i dig it a lot. i still don't like how they showed the alien, but i liked the saucer(though that whole akator act is still weak). i knew he was gonna survive the nuke, so when he ran in looking for shelter i thought "oh god please be a shelter or something, oh don't go in the fridge. jeez."

Saw it opening day(in a brand new theater, literally. It opened May 22nd and had all 14 theaters showing it for its grand opening), and everyone was into it. They laughed at all the right moments(biggest laugh being Indy's line after being told Mutt's his son) and at the end the people in the front clapped(I joined them). Very impressive range of an audience from both genders ranging from to little kids to those who looked to be in their 80s. There was a great feeling in the air too of finally getting to see a film we've waited 19 years for. Plus, I got free Indiana Jones Topps cards. I thought afterwards, "It's going to be very hard for all the message boards to bash this movie!".

2nd + 3rd viewings obviously couldn't live up to that reaction. Plus I saw both during weekdays(3rd viewing just a few days before TDK came out). Still, pretty decent sized audience considering. Didn't seem like a type to get overly excited about any movie though.

the moment of Indy putting hat on was pretty magical. FINALLY get to see indy on the big screen. and then the 4th time with my lil cousin turning to me and saying "i liked it!!" when it ended was awesome.

You insinuated that everyone who went to my midnight showing (which would include me), and indeed anyone who didn't like the film, were "fanboys" who didn't enjoy the movie because they failed to have an open mind. How exactly do you expect that sort of talk to bring out the civility in people?

As a die-hard Indiana Jones fan and someone who I like to believe can go into a movie with an open mind, I was very disappointed by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. My expectations were for exactly what was promised: an Indiana Jones movie that delivers - nothing more or less. I did not expect a movie that would be anywhere near Raiders, but I did not expect a movie that was relentlessly average, either. I don't go to a film with Indiana Jones in the title to see an average action adventure movie, because it's not an average franchise and it's not made by average talent. That is not the same as expecting something classic, or flawless, or whatever other expectations some people here are quick to attribute to people who don't agree with them.

I think the odds were always against Indy4, and that it was never going to surpass its predecessors. I also believe it could have, and should have, been a much better film, and if that makes me a "fanboy," then I guess I'll just have to live with it.

Isn't this the epitome of overhype though? You aren't taking the film on its own merits, but rather expecting it to be already above a predetermined mark in your mind.

It's interesting listening to Spiilberg on the dvd extras, as he was saying that they weren't setting out to outdo the other films, or that they felt the need to "top" some previous mark. Rather, the film was made to be a blood relative of the other films in the series.

Personally, I like that approach. Each film in the series is stylistically and tonally different from the others. Kingdom continues that approach and doesn't seem to have the pretensions to be something it isn't, other than a pulpy fun ride.

Back to the thread topic though...

I attended 5 showings of Kingdom. One was a critic's screening, and those are almost always dead silent anyway...although there were some appreciative reactions to Indy's intro, Spalko, and laughter at Indy's "Why the hell.." line to Marion.

In fact, that line always got laughs at every showing I attended. Certain scenes just seemed to work every time.

The general audiences I watched the film with seemed to be either enjoying it enough and into it, but I can't say they stood up and were speaking in tongues while applauding wildly either.

Last count I saw the movie 3 times in the cinema... 1st screening was odd as it was predominantly an adult crowd (which is strange when considering the movie). The crowd did seem to enjoy it, but I did hear some comments when leaving about "Harrison being too old", "aliens being silly" etc. etc.

2nd screening was totally different, as it was an earlier showing and the crowd was mixed e.g. kids, adults, and teenagers. The crowd were a lot more receptive with laughs, ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ in all the right places. The general crowd reaction can heighten or lessen one's perception/enjoyment of the movie... so I definitely enjoyed the 2nd screening better than the first.

3rd viewing was a lunchtime performance (took my 10 year old nephew). The crowd consisted of parents with kids, and as you can imagine, they loved it. Great buzz about it… which made the viewing a lot more enjoyable that it otherwise could/should have been.

some people laughed. we all applauded at the end (it deserved it) but this one dude was really abnoxious he kept bursting out saying "come on Indy" or "he's Behind you!!" just crap like tht stuff we're all thinking but are intelligent enough not to say out loud

I saw it seven times in theaters, at various points from one of the opening midnight showings to one in its last week or so at a local discount theater, shortly before it went to video. I mostly remember my own reaction, but I do think I can safely say the audience response at the opening midnight show was positive although muted, not much like the initial Raiders of the Lost Ark experience back in the day, but certainly a favorable response.

My second show was an opening evening one, the day after the midnight showing I saw first, and that experience was most disappointing, though I'd peg that mainly on the wholly unsatisfactory sound in the theater I saw it at. I regret not leaving the auditorium to ask that they do something about the muffled sound, but of course I didn't want to miss a moment, so...

First time around at the midnight show the crowd reacted indifferently! It was very similar to the crowd at the midnight show of The Phantom Menace. The audience was pretty much all teens and adults, and I really don't think there was a single kid in the seats. There was only one guy dressed as Indy in the crowd, but that was about it for major displays of fandom.

The second time around it was a much more enthusiastic crowd, with a more diverse audience. There were plenty of cheers, screams in terror(at the ants and scorpions), laughs, and applause at the end.

Third and fourth time the audience was indifferrent again, a few laughs and screams but that was about it.

Overall the crowd reacted pretty blase about the whole thing with some minor excitement here and there. Not at all what I was expecting! What was most fun about the whole experience was seeing how diverse the crowd could be! You had senior citizens sitting next to teenagers, and little kids with their late 30 something parents who most likely grew up with the old films. I remember as a kid how into Last Crusade the crowd was, and this was nothing like that at all! Back then people laughed at all the jokes, and they were hard laughs not chuckles, and there were tons of cheers and screams at all the right moments. With KOTCS it was like people felt they had to laugh, but really weren't inclined to.

So you paid to see a movie you were disappointed with several times, but in the end it was the infectious reactions of an appreciative audience (not made up solely of Indy fans) made it more enjoyable?

I paid to see the movie several times because it's an Indiana Jones movie, and I'm an Indiana Jones fan. That makes it a special movie for me, and it's also a movie that, more than any other in recent memory, I've had a really hard time trying to figure out how I feel about it.

And regarding the kids showing: an appreciative audience did not make the film any better, but rather made that particular experience more enjoyable for me. Most escapist movies are like that - an engaged and participant audience makes the experience more fun. It's nothing really to do with the quality of the movie, which of course isn't variable, but helps explain why something like Snakes on a Plane is ten times more fun in a crowded, rowdy theater than it is on DVD in an empty home. I'm also not sure what you mean by "in the end."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent Z

Isn't this the epitome of overhype though? You aren't taking the film on its own merits, but rather expecting it to be already above a predetermined mark in your mind.

So me expecting (what I would deem to be) an Indiana Jones movie out of an Indiana Jones movie is not only overhype, but the epitome of it? I also don't see why you assume I expected the movie to be "above" a predetermined mark in my mind. I would have been more than happy with it merely meeting it. How do you know how high or low my expectations were that you would call them the epitome of overhype?

And sure, I had expectations. Everyone has expectations going into a movie, no matter how big or small, no matter how deep-rooted or carefree. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar. That's why I reacted strongly to Dr Bones' comment that people with "whatever expectations" disliked the movie, and everyone else did because they had an open mind. (The offensive implication being that only open minded people could enjoy the movie.) And people can have expectations without them being unreasonable, by the way, just like they can have expectations while still taking a film on its own merits. It's called viewing a movie objectively, or as objectively as a person can.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent Z

Kingdom continues that approach and doesn't seem to have the pretensions to be something it isn't, other than a pulpy fun ride.

Neither did the other movies. So, from my perspective, the only logical conclusion I can draw, knowing that all four films have the same approach, is that Kingdom is simply a worse movie.

I must say that hearing the entire audience clap at the end took me by surprise. That audience was in Naperville, Ill. The only other time that I've seen a theater audience do this was when I saw a 30yr anniversary showing of "Taxi Driver" at the Music Box Theater in chicago. Oh, and at the other two viewings of KOTCS that I took in on separate days (also in Naperville). The crowds that I saw Indy 4 with seemed to really enjoy this film, even laughing out loud at all the parts that we Raveners are so divided over. It's ironic that casual film goers were able to enjoy this Indy installment more freely than the fans who wanted to enjoy it the most. Of course I realize that this is because an casual viewer has less of an emotional investment in these films, but that doesn't take away the irony.

At the midnight showing in Long Beach California about a third of the audience applauded at the end. I was conflicted at the time. The parts that always got a response the few times I saw it were always "Why the hell didn't you make him finish school?!" and when Mutt picks the hat up and Ford grabs it out of his hand as the march rises. The hat thing always got that "yess!" reaction. Even now I am still conflicted about what was delivered to us on May 22nd 2008. Don't hate it, but definately don't love it.

I also don't see why you assume I expected the movie to be "above" a predetermined mark in my mind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Udvarnoky

I did not expect a movie that would be anywhere near Raiders, but I did not expect a movie that was relentlessly average, either. I don't go to a film with Indiana Jones in the title to see an average action adventure movie, because it's not an average franchise and it's not made by average talent.

So, going in, the film already has to be an above average action adventure movie...because it's not an "average" franchise..and it's not made by "average" talent?

And that's just to "meet" your expectations. We haven't even gotten to surpassing them...

You are, in effect, branding the film because it's an "Indiana Jones film". You are putting the franchise and its makers on a level above the average action adventure movie.

Hey, fine by me, but it's still hype. We can bounce back and forth between the shades of gray between "semihype", "hype", "overhype" and "ludicroushype" on another day....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Udvarnoky

That's why I reacted strongly to Dr Bones' comment that people with "whatever expectations" disliked the movie, and everyone else did because they had an open mind. (The offensive implication being that only open minded people could enjoy the movie.)